Vibrator apparatus



Sept. 10, 1968 c. G. MATsoN VIBRATOR APPARATUS Filed Dec. 1.9, 1966 FIG. I

.aune-2a l N VE-TTOR. CARL G. MATSON United States Patent O 3,400,770 VIBRATOR APPARATUS Carl G. Matson, 401 E. Central Blvd., Kewanee, Ill. 61443 Filed Dec. 19, 1966, Ser. No. 602,886 Claims. (Cl. 173-32) ABSTRACT 0F THE DISCLOSURE A combined force-exerting device and piston type vibrator arranged in series to provide an elongated structure in which the force-exerting device is extendible to react against a fixed support and to force the vibrator into engagement with an object to be vibrated, the vibrator piston reciprocating along a path preferably coincident with the longitudinal axis of the structure and functioning to impart jolts or impacts to the object to facilitate material settling, unloading etc. of such object as where the object is a material container such as a railway hopper car or the like.

Background of the invention It is well known in the art of material handling to employ vibrators of several types to facilitate the ow of particulate material, especially in conjunction 'with railway hopper cars and the like. One conventional system employs a piston type vibrator attached directly to the car or like object to be vibrated, but the problem here is that the vibrator has nothing but its own casing to react against and consequently is inefficient and ultimately selfdestructive. Another conventional system utilizes anl oscil- -lating or eccentric vibrator carried on a support and selectively movable into and out of engagement with such car or object by means supported from the ground alongside the track on which the car is situated, but the defect here is that engagement between the vibrator and car must be cushioned as by springs and again force and energy are wasted and this system, like the car-mounted type, sulfers from ineciency as well as from other defects such as complicated and expensive structures that are diflicult to use. t

Summary of the invention A preferred embodiment, described for purposes of this paragraph in specicterms and not by way of limitation,

, may comprise a fluid-pressure operated piston type vibrator having its cylindrical casing coaxially united with the cylinder of a uid motor whose piston has a rod engageable with a fixed support, the motor being extendible to force the vibrator casing into engagement with the car or other object to be vibrated so that the vibrator piston functions cyclically to impart jolts or impacts to the car along the axis of the structure established by the cornbined vibrator and uid motor, thus atofding a highly eicient apparatus because the vibrator reacts through the rigid strut or brace established by the lluid motor against the support and no energy is wasted. The structure is relatively simple and inexpensive and can be easily handled by one or two men; it need not be affixed to the car and therefore is not subject to damage in the event that the car is inadvertently moved along the track; it may be conveniently mounted trackside, for example, so that it can be swung out of the way 'when not in use and thus affords greater clearance for the car and workmen on the side thereof; and it lends itself to extreme portability so that it can be easily adapted to react against other supports spaced along the track and even against a ternporary support brought trackside for the purpose.

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FIG. 1 is an environmental view showing the structure in place for use in vibrating a railway car, a portion of the force-exerting device being broken away to illustrate its nature; and

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary longitudinal section showing the interior of the vibrator and the relationship thereof to the force-exerting device.

Description of the preferred embodiment It will be appreciated that the environmental aspects of the invention may vary widely and that the arrangerment selected here is for illustrative purposes only. A typical trackside situation is shown in which the object to be vibrated is represented by a railway hopper car 10 at a standstill on tracks alongside of which is provided a suitable support, here a forged mount 12 anchored to a 4concrete bed 14. The vibratorapparatus is designated in its entirety by the numeral 16 and provides an elongated structure having opposite ends, here made up of a vibrator device 18 and a force-exerting device 20 arranged in an end-to-end series relationship in which the vibrator device is the car-proximate end portion of the structure and the force-exerting device is the other end portion so as to react against the support mount 12. The force-exerting device 20 is preferably a uid motor comprising a cylinder 22 containing a piston 24 to which is connected a piston rod 26 having at its free end a clevis 28 which may be readily connected to and disconnected from the support mount 12 as by a pin 30. The motor may be of the one-way or single-acting type and may be pressurized by any suitable uid such as air, oil etc., as via a pressure supply and exhaust line 32.

The vibrator device 18 may be made up of a cylin-drical casing 34 having one end open toward the motor cylinder 22 and externally ilanged at 36 to receive a plurality of bolts 38 which pass also through a radial w-all 40 that is integral with and that closes the casing-proximate end of the motor cylinder 22. This radial wall 40 thus also encloses the cylinder-proximate end of the casing 34 to provide a rebound or cushion chamber 42 in the casing, and the junction of the cylinder 22 and casing 34 is therefore supplemented by fluid-tight seal means such as a gasket 44. In the preferred construction illustrated, the cylinder 22 and vibrator casing are coaxial so that the forces exerted by a piston element `46 in the casing 34 are along the lengthwise axis of the structure 16; although, it will be clear that true coaxiality may be departed from to suit specic conditions. A structure in which the recoprocative path of the vibrator piston 45 is closely parallel to the axis of the iiuid motor 20 would give good results, as would -a structure in which the vibrator piston travel is at a tolerable angle to the axis of the fluid motor, it being understandable that the strut or brace effect of the sructure 16 between the support mount 12 and the car 10 is best exploited when the vibrator 18 and uid motor 20 are coaxial or nearly so.

The vibrator 18 may be of any well-known piston type, that shown here by way of example operating on the principle of supplying and exhausting uid under pressure-typically compressed air-so that the piston 46 is caused to reciprocate cyclically on object-jolting and retracting strokes, the former being toward and the latter away from the car 10. The car-proximate end of the casing 34 is also open and an anvil 48 is mounted over this end in such a way that it is preferably not rigidly united to the casing 34 'in tension; that is to say, the casing 34 Patented Sept. 10, 1968 and anvil 48 cooperate in abutting relationship but as the piston 46 strikes the interior surface of the anvil 48, the anvil may move away from the casing. The connectio-n between the casing and anvil preferably involves a telescopic relationship, and for this purpose the anvil has an integral fiange means 5'0 that loosely receives the end of the casing. The axial dimension of the flange means is of course great enough to prevent the anvil from jarring completely off the casing in normal use. The opposite side of the anvil is preferably formed of L shape as shown so as to suitably engage a lower corner of the car. This relationship is of course a function of the specific arrangement by way of example in which the longitudinal axis of the structure 16 is at approximately 45 to the horizontal, and arrangement that enables efficient utilization of the invention to derive maximum ow characteristics in the material in the car, because both horizontal and vertical components of force occur, especially since the car is typically springrnounted on its trucks, a characteristic that is so well known as to require no further elaboration. The general relationship is but observed in passing so as to make it clear that the structure 16 could be arranged at other angles to the car or equivalent object to be vibrated.

Also, in the example shown, when the liuid motor 20 is pressurized to cause its relatively movable parts, represented by the piston 24 and cylinder 22, to extend, the structure 16 functions as a lengthening brace, one end reacting on the support mount 12 by means of the clevis pin connection and the other end acting through the anvil 48 against the car 10. Sufficient force may be exerted to virtually transfer at least some of the weight of the car from its proximate truck to the strut thus provided. This assures a superior expend-ing clamp action against the car and keeps the anvil 48 in place. As the piston reciprocates to strike successive blows against the anvil, the latter is, as said above, free to move a limited amount away from the casing, thus removing destructive tensional forces from the casing. As a variation in the support-tocar arrangement shown, the structure 16 may be interposed between the car and a temporary support, such as fork lift truck, etc., temporarily anchored adjacent to the car or other object to be vibrated. Many other variations will occur on the basis of what is disclosed here.

The vibrator casing has rigid internal radial wall 52 centrally bored to receive a reduced portion 54 of the piston 46, the free end of which piston being the end that strikes the anvil 48. The piston 46 has an enlarged head 56 at its opposite end within the casing chamber 42 and fiuid under pressure is fed by a compressed air line 58 to a casing inlet passage 60 that is alternately communicated with a pair of axially spaced apart ports 62 and 64 in the piston 46, which ports are connected to an axial piston passage 66 that opens to the casing chamber 42 at the piston head 56. Thus, when the supply port 62 registers with the inlet passage 60, the exhaust port 64 is cut off by the casing wall 52 and pressure is applied via the port 62 and piston passage 66 to the larger area of the piston head 56 in the chamber 42, causing the piston 46 to advance rapidly on its impact or jolting stroke to strike the anvil 48 as the exhaust port 64 becomes exposed at the opposite side of the casing wall 52 to exhaust through the loose junction between the casing and the anvil. The rapidly expanding inlet air is still acting against the smaller area of the head 56 between the casing wall 52 and the head and causes the piston 46 to retract, again exposing the piston inlet port 62 to the inlet 60 to incur another jolting stroke and so on. Since there will always be a cushion of air in the chamber 442, the head S6 of the piston 46 never strikes the radial wall 40 that serves as a closure for both the casing 34 and the cylinder 22, and this, in combination with the loose junction between the casing 34 and anvil 48, frees the virbrator from the effects of destructive axial tensional forces.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that the invention achieves several important objects and has many 4 y features. Because of the removable interconnection between the vibrator device 18 and the force-exerting device 20, the two may be easily assembled and disassembled when the occasion arises; this feature also facilitates manufacture and many types of adapters may be used to interconnect known components. The pivotal and separable connection of the piston rod clevis at 30 has the advantages of enabling the vibrator structure to be moved from place to place, as where several similar support mounts 12 are provided along the track; and has the further advantage of enabling the structure to be easily swung clear of passing cars. Since the anvil abuts the car need not be affixed thereto, the danger of extensive damage to the structure by inadvertent movement of the car along the track is avoided. The structurebeing relatively simple, is light enough in weight to enable it to be easily handled without the employment of expensive power equipment such as hoists or the like. Features and advantages other than those enumerated will readily occur to those skilled in the art, and many variations inthe structure disclosed will suggest themselves on the basis of what is taught here, all without departure from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Vibrator apparatus adapted to be interposed between a support and an object to be vibrated, comprising an elongated structure having first and second opposite end portions adapted respectively to engage the object and the support, said first end portion including a vibrator device having an element reciprocable generally lengthwise of the structure on alternate object-jolting and retracting strokes respectively toward and away from the object, and said second end portion including a forceexerting device having first and second parts relatively extendible and retractible generally lengthwise of the structure, said first part being rigidly associated with the vibrator device and said second part being engageable with the support, and means for selectively extending said parts to lengthen the structure for exerting a compressive force between the support and the object.

2. The invention defined in claim 1, vin which the first end portion includes a terminal end part having an anvil engageable with the object and including an element-strikeable face normal to the length of the structure and the element operates to strike the anvil face on its object-jolting strokes.

3. The invention defined in claim 2, in which the vibrator device includes a casing in which the element reciprocates, said casing is rigidly associated with the first part of the force-applying device and extends to and engages the anvil in abutting but lengthwise relatively movable relationship thereto and enabling the anvil to move away from the casing on the object-jolting strokes of the element.

4. The invention defined in claim 3, in which the casing is cylindrical and the anvil has a mating casing-proximate cylindrical portion telescopically associated with the casing.

5. The invention defined in claim 1, in which the force-applying device is a tiuid pressure motor including a cylinder and piston comprising the aforesaid relatively extendible and retractible parts.

6. The invention defined in claim 5, in which the vibrator device includes a cylindrical casing in which the element reciprocates and said casing andthe cylinder ar arranged in coaxial end-to-end relationship.

7. The invention defined in claim 6, in which the casing an cylinder are separte units abutting each other at a radial junction to establish said end-to-end relationship and said structure includes means securing the casing and cylinder together at said junction.

8. The invention defined in claim 7, in which said lastnamed means includes a radial wall' rigid with the cylinder at its casing-proximate end, radial fiange, means rigid on the casing at its cylinder-proximate end, and fastener means cooperate with said wall and ange means for securing the two together.

9. The invention dened in claim 8, in which the vibrator is fluid-pressure operated and the interior of the casing at its cylinder-proximate end opens to the radial -wall to provide a rebound chamber for the element, and the means securing the casing and cylinder together includes a uidtight seal.

10. The invention dened in claim 1, in which the two devices are coaxial on the longitudinal axis of the structure.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Lewis 91-234 Stoney 91-234 Banks 173-36 Yeager 214--64.2 Plant 214--64.2 Matson 214--642 10 JAMES A. LEPPINK, Primary Examiner. 

